Facebook bans but doesn’t impede illegal file sharing

Facebook started blocking links to Pirate Bay torrents on its website just one week after the file-sharing repository added a "Share on Facebook" button on its site, reports the Register. 

Facebook’s actions were aimed at blocking all shared links to Pirate Bay torrents on the site. A Facebook spokeswoman explained the measure this way:

Facebook respects copyright and our Terms of Service prohibits placement of 'Share on Facebook' links on sites that contain 'any content that is infringing.' Given the controversy surrounding The Pirate Bay and the pending lawsuit against them, we've reached out to The Pirate Bay and asked them to remove the 'Share on Facebook' links from their site. The Pirate Bay has not responded and so we have blocked their torrents from being shared on Facebook.

Nevertheless, Pirate Bay fans can still link to torrents on Facebook. It has been identified that only links coming from "http://thepiratebay.org/..." are being blocked, while others using a Pirate Bay subdomain can still be added to a Facebook. Moreover, there are many other popular torrent sites like Mininova and isoHunt which can still be used on the block.

As the Register noted “There's definitely a censorship issue here with Facebook's blockage as not all torrents link to copyrighted material. But with censorship attempts like this, who needs free rein?”